UK's Palestine Action loses bid to pause ban as terrorist group

By Sam Tobin

LONDON (Reuters) -Pro-Palestinian campaign group Palestine Action's co-founder on Friday lost a bid to pause the British government's decision to ban the group under anti-terrorism laws, though the group is launching an urgent appeal.

Huda Ammori, who helped found Palestine Action in 2020, asked London's High Court to stop the proscription of Palestine Action as a terrorist organisation, before a full hearing of her case that banning the group is unlawful later this month.

British lawmakers this week decided to ban Palestine Action after its activists broke into a Royal Air Force base and damaged two planes in protest against what the group says is Britain's support for Israel.

Proscription would make it a crime to be a member of Palestine Action that carries a maximum sentence of 14 years in prison.

Palestine Action has increasingly targeted Israel-linked companies in Britain, often spraying red paint, blocking entrances or damaging equipment. The group accuses the British government of complicity in what it says are Israeli war crimes in its ongoing bombardment of Gaza.

Israel has repeatedly denied committing abuses in its war in Gaza, which began after Palestinian militant group Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, 2023.

Ammori's lawyer Raza Husain said the proscription marked the first time Britain had sought to ban a group carrying out such direct action, describing it as "an ill-considered, discriminatory, authoritarian abuse of statutory power".

Critics of the government's decision, including some United Nations experts and civil liberties groups, have also argued that damaging property does not amount to terrorism.

DEFENCE FIRMS TARGETED

The group has particularly focused on Israeli defence firm Elbit Systems and Britain's government cited a raid at an Elbit site last year when it decided to proscribe the group.

The decision to ban the group came as four members were charged over the incident at the RAF Brize Norton air base, in which military planes were sprayed with red paint.

Husain said that was the only example of action targeting a government or military facility and all previous incidents were against private companies to support his argument against designating Palestine Action as terrorist.

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper, Britain's interior minister, has said that violence and criminal damage have no place in legitimate protest and that Palestine Action's activities pass the threshold for proscription.

Judge Martin Chamberlain ruled against Ammori's bid to pause the ban, meaning the proscription of Palestine Action will come into force at midnight.

Husain asked for a temporary pause until Monday pending an appeal but Chamberlain refused, saying: "You are going to have to trouble the Court of Appeal tonight."

Ammori said in a statement that "we are seeking an urgent appeal to try to prevent a dystopian nightmare of the government's making".

(Reporting by Sam Tobin, Editing by William James, Sachin Ravikumar, Philippa Fletcher)